Sabacc Confessions
by Callista Loveday
Summary: While playing sabacc with Han and Luke, Leia recalls confessions of the past she just wants to forget... In honor of the ROMANOV'S!


Title: **Sabacc Confessions**   
Author: Callista Elizabeth Loveday   
Summary: While playing Sabacc with Han and Luke, Leia remembers confessions of her past she just wants to forget...   
Disclaimer: I wrote this for fun.. Jasheway, Ninka, and Mashka never existed, as well as Smith, but there were some questions I had.. Plus, Leia's real background is way too boring!   
Timeline: When Leia is 19, in between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.   
Feedback: yes, I love feedback! Review, please :) 

~~

"Ha!" It was this one word that made the princess roll her eyes. Han had won _another_ game of Sabacc.   
"What's the score, again, Luke?" Han said, grinning like a fool. Leia glared at him.   
"You're terrible at winning." she scowled.   
"Well I think you just hate to lose, Princess." Luke sent him a warning glance, which Han pointingly ignored.   
"Oh just forget about it. Didn't we have a conversation going before you became egotistical?" then muttered under her breath, "again".   
"What, you're beginning to miss my voice?" Han said, and Leia herself had to chuckle.   
"Get a life, flyboy." She briefly recalled calling him that on the Death Star before she had even seen the Falcon. But that swagger Han had with his attitude was typical of which these nicknames came with.   
Luke excused himself and left the room.   
"Let's take a break and watch the holovid for a couple minutes," Han suggested, his arm leaning back on the chair. 

_Father used to sit like that all the time. I remember that morning, the day before this whole mess had gotten started.. He was sitting in the speeder with his arm draped back, and he flashed me one of his famous smiles._   
_ "But you promised you'd take me to the club today," I whined. God, could I whine._   
_ "Business has come up, dear. I'll see you later- Next week? No, I'm sorry, two weeks from now. You and your sisters will be fine." Bail waved his hand absently._   
_ It was always 'you and your sisters'. Why were we supposed the ones with the problem? I knew, as he really did, that I was independent enough to take care of myself- and that my brother was the one with the problem._   
_ But it was because he was a boy that it was ignored._   
_ Father drove away in that speeder, and I dejectedly turned back to where my sisters were sitting and watching me. They knew that when there was trouble, or when Ma was too busy with "the boy", as she always was, they could come to me._   
_ Why was it that if three people can depend on me, two simple people, who's opinion's mattered more to me than anything, can't?_

The small screen aboard the Falcon switched onto the news station, where a camera had captured a group of stormtroopers was breaking into a house and tearing apart a family's valuables. 

_ The servants had been acting unusually quiet all day. My sisters and brother and I knew something was up, but wished we knew what it was. That night, they led us down to the basement- Ma, 15 year old Jasheway, 12 year old Mashka, and Ninka. Ninka had been born sick, and he could barely stand without someone's help. We requested a chair for him, and one of the stormtroopers brought it. Then eleven stormtroopers entered with weapons as big as I had ever seen. I had been seventeen at the time, I understood what was going to happen. But poor Ninka, he was only 8 years old- Too young to have to face this terror._   
_ The shooting began. Ninka of course, died instantly, then Jasheway dropped down in front of Mashka, Ma and me, who were huddled together in fear. They shot at us, too, but the bullets bounced off the jewels sewed onto our clothes. Finally the bullet hit Mashka._   
_ Ma and I thought the guns would come our way, but the shooting stopped. The troopers left the room and before I slipped into unconsciousness I caught a glimpse of a brunette woman with a kind face..._   
_ When I came around, I was in a bed in a tiny, cramped house. The woman was wiping off my forehead with a cloth, and smiled when she saw I was awake._   
_ "Why do you look so familiar?" I asked her._   
_ She chuckled to herself as if she knew some secret I didn't- which annoyed me._   
_ "What is it, woman? Are you daft?" I snapped. I had no idea what daft meant, I had just heard it many times by Father._

Han waved his hand in front of Leia's face, making her jump. "You in there?" he smirked.   
"Yes, I was just thinking about something."   
"I've had enough of the holovid, anyway." Han got out the Sabacc cards again.   
The cover of the deck had never made any sense- It was a picture of a human and a feline looking creature playing sabacc, with the human looking boastful. 

_I remember the orange stripped feline rubbing up against the woman's leg._   
_ "What's your name?" I asked the woman._   
_ She shifted on her feet. "It's not important."_   
_ I had been trying to piece together everything that happened. I still couldn't understand why they wanted us dead, but with my father there was always something wrong, or someone out there to kill him._   
_ Suddenly I sat up, getting a headache as I did so. "My god, where's Mother?" The woman jumped at the name 'mother', her dull eyes filled with hope and change for a moment, but then the moment passed and she once again became the mysterious woman I knew nothing about._   
_ "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Leia... When I got the soldiers to leave, a friend of mine loaded both of you into the wagon. Your mother had been hit by one of the soldiers, although we didn't realize it in the basement. She died before we could give her proper medicine."_   
  
Luke came back into the room, surprised to see the glassy look in Leia's eyes. "Is she drunk?" he demanded to Han, who shrugged.   
"No, no, sorry," Leia said. Luke noticed her hand seemed to shake as she got up from her chair. "I better leave."   
**   
Leia ran all the way to her apartment, not stopping for anything, even when Reeiken called after her. She flew herself down on her bed, where the tears started streaming down her face. Why did those confessions that had been racing through her mind for the last year have to start in front of her friends?   
_Friends._ Friend was the word Bail's assistant, Smith, used the week after the accident at Mother's funeral. 

_"Princess, your father and I are greatly upset by the.. er, event. But Mr Organa has decided to move on, as should you."_   
_ I knew why he was being so nice to me- Because now that everyone else was dead, I was to be the Heir to the throne. I said the words to myself: Queen Leia Organa. Lovely sound, Smith and I agreed that day._   
_ The next year, the day before I turned 18, I asked Father why those soldiers had attacked, but didn't kill me or Mother._   
_ He sighed and turned to the window. "There was a group of rebels who decided that Ninka wouldn't be a strong leader. So, they disguised themselves and hired Imps to kill everyone but you and Mother."_   
_ He lifted up a picture of Ninka taken before he was killed, and looked so upset I wanted to say I understood how he could hate me, a girl, over Ninka._   
_ "Who led the group?"_   
_ Finally he looked at me. "Reeiken and someone named... Padme."_   
_ That woman. I still had no idea who she was or where she came from, but this 'Padme' seemed to care for me- Whatever reason that may be._   
_ **_   
Luke exchanged curious glances with Han as Leia ran off.   
"What happened while I was gone?"   
"I don't know- All sorts of confessions come out while playing Sabacc. 

The End... Or is it? Write whatever you think of it.. There may be a sequel!


End file.
